Roberto Della Vedova (1935-2023)

He was one of the best-known poets writing in Genoese in the 1970s and 1980s, partly through his founding of “O nòstro parlâ - O nòstro scrive”. This association of poets, modelled on the Italian-language poetry societies popular at the time, toured reading rooms to make Genoese poetry better known. Della Vedova belonged to the school of poets influenced by Firpo, but according to F. Toso his sensibility and inspiration were very different from Firpo’s, whose influence was confined to matters of form. Della Vedova’s poems appeared in various collective publications and in the collection Liguria Antiga (1983), with a preface by the well-known journalist and writer Vittorio G. Rossi, who wrote: “Roberto Della Vedova is a poet; today, to call someone a poet is to do him a disservice; today everyone paints pictures, writes poems; and they are plastic paintings, plastic poems… Della Vedova is a poet as poets were when there were men who worked with their hands; that is, blacksmiths, carpenters, stonemasons; that is, when man still existed… And poetry, when it is poetry, is something that does not come from man; it does not come from the gardens of the earth, nor from the depths of the sea; it comes from Paradise, that is, from who knows where. This poetry of Roberto Della Vedova makes Liguria a little more Liguria; that is, it blows on a fire that is about to go out…”

Vernassa

Fasce nasciue
dove meue o çê.
Vegi fiagni d’uga
inta voxe do sô;
che dua e doçe
a regalla sciamme à l’äia
pe fâ tremmâ l’agave
e a çimma di erboi de oive.

Rivea de ponente

Case gianche, reusa e turchinetto
sparpaggiæ pe-a còsta,
pösæ in sce cunni de tæra
nasciui da-o mâ…
e coverti de parme, d’erboi d’oive
e spallee de fiori,
inte unna neutte
quande ancon - i incanteximi -
regallavan perle a-o mondo.

I sò euggi freidi

– Paisan! Ò giaminou pe passâ i Zovi,
veuggio cangiâ a mæ machina
con a tò vacca,
tutti i mæ dinæ
con a tò tæra –
«Pai! Se poëse cangieiva ma…
a mæ casciña a l’é deruâ
e mi… no ghe son ciù.»
– Paisan! Te prego, meuo da-a sæ.
Pòsso dâte un… çento palaçi,
a mæ fabbrica… pe un rappo d’uga
pe un gòtto de læte –
«L’é sccioio solo un costo de reuse
e in scê spiñe gh’é unna gossa de sangue.»
– Paisan! Lascia che m’arrecovie into bòsco.
No ne pòsso de ciù!
Dove gh’ea i bòschi
brilla miggiæ de lummetti açeixi,
o vento o spussa d’arfê,
a neutte a l’é unna lamma arruzzenia.
Un òmmo solo e stanco o picca à unna pòrta;
nisciun peu sentî, a casciña a no gh’é ciù.
Gh’é solo a neutte, co-i sò euggi freidi.

’Nna çittæ

Conosceivo ’nna çittæ
fæta de crii
de verde e de silensio.
Son partio de neutte
e into mæ cheu sentivo un vegio canto.
Da-o barco
ò visto i campanin de gexe
fâse piccin
e e luxe e o çê
abbrassâse adaxo
a-o ciæo de urtime stelle.